Are We Entitled to Pirate?

There has been a lot hubbub about the SOPA/PIPA bills online lately (click here). Although the votes on the bills have been postponed for the moment the hacker group Anonymous has taken it amongst themselves to continue the protest by hacking various companies sites that were in support (here). These bills were designed to help combat online piracy.

This is a noble cause but the methods for which they would be implemented I personally had a big problem with. I had discussion with some of my fellow classmates about this that turned into a bigger discussion about online piracy as a whole. We debated about why people pirate and the supposed benefits and pitfalls. After going over this debate in my head for a while I came to the realization that online piracy will never stop. No matter what laws are thrown down people are still going to find a way to pirate it. The reason for this is the mentality that everyone has about pirating. I see that a lot of people feel they have the right to download an album or movie for free. They justify their logic by saying well it cost too much to go to the movies or I like to preview an album before I buy it. Or another one is if they made better movies/music I would buy their product. So if you were to apply this logic to other industries it’s like saying well I stole this car because the gas mileage wasn’t up to my standards or this laptop doesn’t have enough ram so I should get it for free. In this context everyone would probably agree that it’s not right to do that so why is it so for media? I guess most people see it as a victimless crime and the companies that produce them have too much money. It’s an invalid argument in my eyes. Entertainment isn’t free it’s a business in which people are trying to make a living. It’s a brutal business and whether you see it or not someone is being harmed by piracy.